"No me llames de usted, tratame de tu": L2 address behavior development through synchronous computer-mediated communication

Abstract

This dissertation explores the potential of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) to promote pragmatic competence among language learners in a higher education context. Specifically, the development of their L2 address system and their interactive resources to display closeness when engaged in communication with L1 speakers. Through Conversation Analysis (CA), the sequential organization of SCMC between L1 speakers of Spanish and L2 Spanish learners was analyzed to discover what type of address behavior they exhibited, as well as documenting any change in their pragmalinguistic resources and patterns of interaction. Eight weeks of SCMC between US students of Spanish and L1 Spanish speakers in Spain were microanalyzed through Conversation Analysis (CA). The data illustrate how students engaged in organized meaningful interaction, employing a turn-taking system borrowed from oral communication but re-shaped and adapted to the medium, much in the same way that L1 speakers do.